April 30, 2015

"As studios have trimmed expenses and cut loose longtime producers, [Joel] Silver, 62, is part of a growing fraternity of big-name players who have been forced to raise money for their projects on their own and hustle to sell them in a tough market. " - Kim Masters, "The Epic Saga of Joel Silver: Money Struggles, Feuds and (Another) Second Chance," in Hollywood Reporter, April 29, 2015.

Joel Silver could have a comeback. How he did that - hustle - used to carry a stigma. That wasn't cool. And if you were good in what you did you were expected not to do that. Ever. WASP gentility ruled.

For example, at the end of the 1980s, when I was cut loose in a major layoff at Kraft, a cynic in the company buttonholed me and observed, "Now you will have to hustle." That was meant to be a put-down. But, hustle I did and that potential catastrophe had a happy ending. For decades I operated a successful executive communications boutique.

What counts now is not that we are "forced" to hustle. It's the strategies which we leverage. Yes, there is bad and good hustle. Bad hustle is to blanket prospects with unsolicited emails, telecommuting and glad-handing at trade association meetings. Good hustle is to figure out how to create fresh value for employers, customers and clients. And then present that proposition in a compelling manner.

Given that the rules keep mutating, our modus operandi in hustling will also have to continue to change. An example is that we are expected to be more concise in our pitch, whether it be for a full-time job or a new customer/client. Also, it shows the right kind of push to do what's known as a "trial close." We ask what it would take to be hired or get the account.

It's ironic. Before affluence and the rise of the middle class in America, the majority of us were reared to hustle. There was a seamless process of pushing to get what we and our families needed and our little personal lives. Work/life balance? Hell no. It was plain-vanilla survival.

"Climate change sceptics [British spelling] accused Pope Francis of being deeply ill-informed about global warming as the Vatican forged an alliance with the UN to tackle the issue." Nick Squires, The Telegraph, April 28, 2015. Here is the article.

Almost daily, the media report on another position Pope Francis is taking. Most recently, those have included diverse issues such as pay equity for females, human beings should be having more children and, yes, climate change.

It's a fundamental of thought leadership to, crudely put it, choose your shots. This Francis is not doing. He is all-over-the-place.

That could turn him into a global joke. SNL could have a segment on what issue he will pontificate on in the coming week. It could, for example, be the labeling on chicken sold in Wal-Mart.

April 29, 2015

" ... right now we are going through a once-in-a-century transformation in business that is throwing out all existing rules ... [Among them is] that it's not about the price of the product and the margin. It's about delivering value to customers, so they don't want to switch services." - Tien Tzuo, Chief Executive Officer of Zuora, in Fortune, April 27, 2015. Here is the article.

In this Fortune piece, Tien Tzuo is focusing on starting your own business and why getting an M.B.A. is not useful. But his observation about "throwing out all existing rules" has huge implications for the field of communications.

For example, take public speaking, whether that's addressing a group of new employees at the Fortune 500 or delivering a TED Talk. The old rule used to be it was imperative to disclose to the audience, explicitly and implicitly, who you are. That's gone the way of the dumb phone.

With so much change, human beings are hungry for data, insight and some concrete how-tos. That also applies to how we present ourselves for full-time jobs, contract assignments and business for our firms. No longer is it about personality. Actually, the self gets in the way. That was a lesson Willy Loman never learned in the drama "Death of a Salesman."

The same holds for those op-eds in The Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post. The focus is on the audience's experience of the material, not the author's aura.

For those who need to reconfigure how they communicate, the most effective training, I've found, is through Dale Carnegie Systems. That's because it's hands-on. Every week of the eight weeks, instructor in Hartford, Connecticut, Michael Francoeur, had us up there trying out a more audience-focused way to present ourselves. There was no place to flee back into our comfort zone.

When he was a young man, Scott Turow wanted to be a writer. But, from the get-go, he recognized that such as career path likely would not produce the income he would need to live a middle-class life.

So, Turow went to law school. While in law school, he published the breakthrough book "1L," describing the life of a law student. Then he went on to publish best-selling fiction.

With such a writer glut and fee depreciation, the Scott Turow model is the one more of us content providers are embracing. It is increasingly difficult to make ends meet solely from writing. Also, the time and energy invested in marketing ourselves are exhausting.

The unintended side effect of developing multiple sources of income is that, less desperate, we are more effective in selling our communications skills. No, we don't cave to price manipulation. "Take it or leave it," we nicely inform prospects.

Sure, there are some fortunate writers who can sing for their supper through writing full time. But there are fewer and fewer for them. Also, how long they can hold on to that work has a shorter shelf life.

It used to be primarily played in tabloids like The National Enquirer and Star. We were instructed to feel sympathy for brave Laura Bush who had to put up with Condi. Now, it goes way beyond the traditional dictum in media of If it bleeds, it leads.

Mainstream media have hammered us with the suffering of everyone. But, yet, come the first of month it's me who has to pay the bills. Since I have been paying them on time, in full and with something left over, I am feeling good.

However, with such suffering around the world, I would be considered selfish to savor my financial security. Insensitive, too. Inside me I can hear the voice of the Catholic School nuns: Wipe that smile off your face.

The irony is that not long ago when I was a full-blown clinical depressive (mindfulness cured that), I was also censured for being self-absorbed. And, insensitive (my wiring couldn't conduct any connecting currents).

Collectively, we might confront The Great Gravitas by ignoring media reports that don't involve our ability to make a living and invest wisely.

April 28, 2015

The help-wanted in the New York section of Craigslist requests a ghost writer for international subjects, preferably with a graduate degree. The compensation is 15-cents per word. Here you can read and laugh.

The unsealed police reports confirmed what many suspected: Respected lawyer at DLA Piper, seemingly happily married man, and loving uncle to nephews in Ohio, David Messerschmitt, was living a double life.

That news was not the surprise. What might have stunned those of us associated with media was the sustained heavy traffic on articles providing the details.

One example of that has been the coverage by Abovethelaw.com journalist, Joe Patrice. Here you can read it. It ranks number-one on Google in the David-Messerschmitt category. My own postings about the double life on my three syndicated blogs have also become downright clickbait.

Yet, the double-life phenomenon happens all the time.

Pillar of the establishment, global philanthropist, former head of management consulting firm McKinsey and member of the boards of directors for the Fortune 500, Rajat Gupta, is in prison. He is serving two years for engaging in insider trading with the players at Galleon hedge fund.

Equally surprising, at least to the 1% crowd, was the unmasking of Uncle Bernie, Bernie Madoff, as scammer. For years, this supposed financial Jewish rabbi to the elite was conducting a Ponzi scheme.

Maybe not so surprising to conservatives who understand the need for a righteous persona were the disclosures about Richard Nixon. His real personality and behavior did not align with that image.

Closer to home was the Millennial entrepreneur I ghostwrote a book for in 2013. Brash, yes. I had a hunch that would eventually limit his success. And, even for youth, his non-stop vulgarities ("I can now tell people to kiss my ass") were jarring.

But I had no idea that, for years, he was allegedly masterminding mobile cramming schemes whose revenues totaled a king's ransom. He settled with the Federal Trade Commission, surrendering the lion's share of his bling. Not easily thrown for a loop, I was thrown. Even as I replay the tapes (our meetings were recorded for the book), I still can't pick up any clues of the other life he was leading.

Those are the over-the-top examples.

On a more mundane level, we are advised by executive coaches to "change our stories." This isn't new. A shrewd John Wayne, after he had made it, changed his story of early struggle in acting to this: Hey, folks, this all happened accidentally. Fame was thrust upon me.

So, in a sense, those of us who understand the power of image keep modifying our stories from the past. Usually, it winds up that we are indeed leading a double life. The aggregate of who we are is frequently quite different than the successful professional we are presenting to our constituencies.

A classic example, of course, had been Saul Goodman in "Breaking Bad." In "Better Call Saul," we are experiencing how he got to that identity.

That Messerschmitt was immersed in a double life may be a huge something to sort out for his widow and family. But, in the history of mankind's push for what it wants, it is a blip.

"The news that two Pulitzer winners have switched to PR touched off a slew of comments knocking journalism as a career." - Jack O'Dwyer, "Journalism Is Satisfying Despite Low $$, Other Problems," in Odwyerpr.com, April 27, 2015. Here is the article.

But, journalists aren't the only ones discovering, "Hey, this is very demanding work and I am earning peanuts." And that grim moment of clarity isn't just happening in the United States.

"The research, commissioned by The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, found ... the medium income for professional writers is just 10,432 pounds, less than minimum wage. Technical and academic writers are the worst paid."

The top tier of brandname writers do still make a living wage or much better than that. Also there are niches, such as inhouse executive communications, which can support a middle-class family. However, for the college tuition for kids, there still might be the need to take out a home equity loan.

The reality is that most of us can no longer pay our bills through writing, not as a career path. O'Dwyer suggests:

"Journalists who want to remain in the occupation should start their own businesses on the side, something that their employers might even help with since it keeps wages down."

A second solution is to unbundle writing from the need to make a living. Crudely, that might be framed as "writing as a hobby" or "writing as a genteel pursuit." On "Downton Abbey," Lady Edith has dipped into writing.

On May 4th, I start a fresh career path. It is packaged as a full-time job, even with good old-fashioned benefits. I landed it because it involves communications. But, no, my job description isn't writing. Because it only requires 40 hours a week, plus a one-hour round-trip daily commute, I will still be handling client contract assignments. In addition, I will continue publishing fiction, such as this short story. Eventually I will be pitching a book of sudden fiction to agents for traditional publication.

A third solution is to embrace the identity of The New Bohemian. That's a lot like being a graduate student, newbie actor or an old-line free spirit. You just don't give a damn about money, at least not the American capitalist version. Your numbers are growing as you get by through crazy jobs such as scorer of non-multiple-choice standardized tests and walker of multiple dogs (popular in Manhattan). Yes, you are poor, by conventional standards. But you don't care. You don't apologize.

A fourth solution is to reinvent yourself as a non-writer. You will be taken more seriously in the commercial world. Given the glut of us, businesspeople tend to smirk when we earnestly continue to position and package ourselves as such. Me? Currently, I am out there as "analyst in customer service." On the side, under a whole different branding, I do the client work and have fun in fiction.

A fifth is to marry rich. The spouse, male or female, becomes a kind of patron. Medici-like.

The elephant in the room, of course, is: Have writers become another Lost Generation? Are we in the same pickle as the best and brightest who invested in law school post the 2007 Crash in the legal sector? Currently they are scrambling to get jobs practicing law, then keeping them. Well, we just may be.

But that might be irrelevant. Most writers are like fish who need to stay in water to survive. We have to maintain an environment in which we are immersed in ideas and words. Only, we can no longer anticipate that will pay the bills.

April 27, 2015

After 12 years working for the same guy and liking the routine, it was obvious that she had to look for another job. I would have to search for another deep-pocket of a client. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered. I had assumed the account would carry me into retirement.

That force field of narcissism, who was once featured on Gawker.com as the enemy of enlightened thought, was now without influence. He had been his network. That had collapsed.

One thought leader with big Wall Street contacts was in prison for fraud.

Another, at least judging by his tweets, had lost his marbles.

A higher up in the Catholic Church had been murdered by his mistress.

Worst of all, his only real friend, whose wife was wealthy, had offed himself in the Roman way.

Not that I was going to be left with nothing. Observing him had taught me plenty. Sure, he expected intelligence, fresh ideas and hard work from those who served him. But he thought little and did less. All that was needed for success in the big time, I learned, was creating the illusion among the movers and shakers that they needed him. I tried that a few times. And, damn, it worked. The executives I sold on my unique mighty mind and communications voodoo paid me handsomely. They were also loyal. Human beings crave certainty of outcomes.

“Oh, Rebecca,” his voice boomed. Before I sat down, his phone rang, as usual. The arrangement with his COS was to ring him up as soon as anyone, even a nobody like myself, entered his gilded cave. Would the imaginary person on the other end be Henry Kissinger, Rupert Murdoch, George H.W. Bush or Nancy Reagan? All Republicans, of course.

“Do you want me to wait outside?” I asked.

“Oh, no, Jeb Bush just has one question.”

Like Stephen Hawking, he used his eyebrows to punctuate sentences in this faux dialogue.

I pretended to read a white paper.

When we focused on the draft of the speech I had written for him, he did something atypical. He requested opening humor.

“What kind?” I asked. The concept of humor is as huge as the ocean.

“Jeb wants me to show the absurdity of liberalism. That will be a meme for his acceptance speech if he runs and is nominated. Who knows, you may be writing that for him.”

He loved to dangle bait in front of folks like myself from working class backgrounds. He delighted in playing with our hunger. Of course, he didn’t come through with any of that. Maybe Peggy Olson from “Mad Men” could have shaken some of those goodies out of him.

A week later, he read the opening humor over the phone to Jeb. Both loved it. That was the last time I met with him. The COS was wrong: He did know. There was no big splash in the media about his suicide.

"After a huge backlash, two openly gay city hoteliers [Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass] have issued a public apology for throwing an event with Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, who opposes gay marriage." - Celeste Katz, "Two city hotel owners apologize after furor in gay community over Ted Cruz event," in the New York Daily News, April 27, 2015. Here is the article.

As gay men, Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, should have known better. It was a slap in the face to the entire gay community to conduct an event with Ted Cruz. What were they thinking?

Some might speculate that Reisner and Weiderpass had a solid business rationale for doing what they did. But come on. Business is never all-business. There is also a public relations factor involved. Manage the branding part wrong and the media will be merciless in how you and your business will suffer.